Category Archives: Mass Murderers

Queen Victoria’s chosen wet nurse for Prince Edward went on to become a mass murderer.

Mary Ann Brough was given the role of looking after the most important baby in Britain, the Prince of Wales, and heir to the throne, and was at Queen Victoria’s bedside when she gave birth.

Several years after her position as the royal wet nurse had come to an end, Brough killed her six children and then attempted to take her own life in her home in Esher, Surrey.

In 1854, Brough, who is believed to have been in her 40s at the time of the incident, used her husband’s razor blade to slit the throats of her six children, 11-year-old Georgiana, eight-year-old William, seven-year-old Carry, four-year-old twins Harriet and Henry and one-year-old George.

After a doctor managed to sew Brough’s throat back up, enabling her to speak, she confessed to the crime.

A sigh of relief was heard last week from the New York Times to many newspapers and media outlets around the world, even in Israel, accompanied by a sneer toward the political right: He’s not a Muslim! Wow. It turns out that the mass murder in Las Vegas was committed by “only” a lunatic, Stephen Paddock, and one doesn’t have to be a jihadist to carry out a merciless massacre.

Too many people are busy apologizing all the time. They eagerly jumped on the “not a Muslim” part. Here’s their proof that Muslims had nothing to do with the massacre. They’re right. But their mocking joy reveals something much deeper. They’re stricken with blindness. Someone who jumps for joy when “a non-Muslim” carries out a massacre usually keeps quiet when “an actual Muslim” carries out a massacre. Reality should be looked at as it is, without “right-wing” or “left-wing”

Less than 12 hours after the news of the Las Vegas shooting broke, the sheriff in charge of investigating it described the gunman as a “lone wolf.”

In short order, that terminology was denounced as a proxy for white privilege.

Shaun King writing for The Intercept, said that the language perpetuates a double standard: when the mass murderer is identified as white, he is seen as an individual (and called a lone wolf); when the killer is black or Muslim, the entire race or religion bears the blame. The sentiment echoed across social media as well.

For reasons of understanding and possibly prevention, the question of what was wrong with the perpetrator is taxing people’s minds–including mine. There has been plenty of speculation over the last week, including such colloquial, yet very stigmatizing terms as monster, miscreant, and madman. Such terminology suggests how difficult it is to empathize or feel any compassion toward such a person, although that is part and parcel of what it takes to be a psychiatrist and to understand and treat patients.

The story of a teenage Nazi imposter who became a mass murderer and one of the world’s most wanted war criminals has been turned into a film.

Der Hauptmann (The Captain) tells the virtually unknown story of Willi Herold, 19, a sadist who impersonated a Nazi officer to murder 172 German soldiers he considered traitors in the dying days of the war. He was subsequently hunted by the British after the collapse of the Third Reich.

It is being brought to the big screen by Robert Schwentke, who directed the Jodie Foster film Flightplan. It premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto Film Festival last month and will open in Paris at the end of this month before being released across Europe.

Raymond Ratima, centre, is escorted from court after his third appearance in July 1992.

One of New Zealand’s most notorious murderers will remain behind bars for at least another four years.

Last month the parole board declined to release Raymond Ratima, who is serving seven life sentences after the 1992 murders of seven people in Masterton, as well as 10 years for murdering an unborn child, and seven years for attempted murder.

Ratima did not seek release but opposed a postponement order. However, the board ruled he should spend at least a further four years in prison before being considered for parole again.

I enjoyed reading the responses to Randall Heller’s “Motive is disingenuous and insincere” letter (Oct. 2) from local progressive activist Gale Bailey and my fellow state representative Wayne Burton. Mr. Heller objected to my use of the phrase “imperialism and white supremacy.”

There absolutely has been more white supremacist activity since Trump became President, exemplified by the violent neo-Nazi riots in Charlottesville, Virginia this past August which led to the death of 3 peaceful citizens. Our President’s response was muted at best, in contrast to his loud response to pro football players (mostly though not exclusively black) peacefully kneeling during the National Anthem. I think it is fair to say that Trump is sympathetic to white supremacists. I also think it is fair to say that Trump is an imperialist, even though he has weakened our nation’s status in the world.

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From the author of Crossed Over, Who Killed These Girls?: Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders is another masterful account of a horrible crime: the murder of four girls, countless other ruined lives, and the evolving complications of the justice system that frustrated the... Read more →